Ripped in Two
by Novak'd
Summary: This takes place just after Season Six, right when they introduce the Leviathans and kill Castiel. The story is original, the characters, except for Maria, are not owned by me.


She takes a look in the mirror; her black hair rests against her back. She grabs her hair and twists it into a bun running it against her hands and tying it with her ponytail holder. Her fingertips slide along her dresser and she walks out the door and down the stairs. She passes by her front door, the sound of her neighbor's lawn mower refusing to turn on, the sound of little boys running on the streets. She continues to a fish tank, takes out the small container of food and drops a pinch of it in the tank. Then heads off into the kitchen and opens her fridge.

A sudden pain runs through her, her hands slide down the fridge handles and she falls to the floor. She smacks her head, the pain refusing to leave. It pounds in her skull, thundering through her body, every clash hitting her bones sending her through a roaring fit of unwanted pain. Her hands find the counter and she pulls herself up, her eyes bright red and her face filled with pain. She cries unable to control herself. "Stop!" she screams over and over again, but the pain continues.

"No, please!" she begs to herself, then proceeds to fall to the floor again, her face streaming with tears. This wasn't normal for her, she has never experienced something quite this painful. She knew what was going on, it happened before but it never affected her like it is now.

She continues one hand on the counter and her body on the floor. The veins on her neck began to run black, continuing up her face, the pain killing her as she screams. Then as fast as the black filled her veins a white light over powers them, stopping it. She laid on the floor gasping for air, and then disappeared from her kitchen.

She falls against the wall and kneels to the floor. She looks at her surroundings, dirty walls of an unkempt alleyway and the smell of the pizzeria next door fills the air. She wipes the tears from her face, and lays her head on the dirty wall. "Winchesters", she murmurs to herself. She stands up, unable to keep her feet steady on the ground, and shakes her head. She walks out of the small ally, heading toward the sidewalk. She stumbles her way to a black car and held onto it for a few seconds then continued to walk, finally gaining her footing back. She observes the town, a small place, probably in the middle of nowhere. The people pass by, without even noticing the dangers that surrounds them. She walks a little further down the sidewalk peering into the windows of the small shops hoping to catch a familiar face. "Winchesters, she murmurs to herself again, this time a little louder.

She walks until she reached a street corner where a public telephone was not being used. She went over to it pulling out the phone book from underneath. She skims through the pages until she found the motels, and dialed the first one that showed up.

"Hello, Orange Gale Motel", a deep voice said roughly through the phone.

"Yes, I need you to tell me if two guys have checked in recently"

"Uhm… yeah, I guess so."

"One was tall… really tall with long hair. The other little shorter, good looks. Probably pulled up in an old car", she says thinking that the description will help. She continues to look around hoping that she will spot the two she's talking about.

"Oh yeah, I think I know the two. The one with the neck and the eyes?", the man replies sarcastically.

"Yes, them. Can you tell me if they are still there?" not catching the sarcasm thrown at her over the phone line.

The man on the phone let out a large sigh, you can hear the sound of his hands running against his face. "Listen lady, I don't know who you're talking about. I've got people like that comin' in and out of this hotel everyday, try another one".

"You were of no help. I suggest you hire someone more observant of your costumers".

"Well Fu-", and she hangs up the phone. She looks around, unable to decide what her next move is. She takes down the address of the motel and heads there.

She didn't walk into the office; instead she stands outside the doors, observing the outside of the each room. Then she stopped at one, and ran her hand along the door and grabs the knob. She twisted it, the door refusing to open. She looks around then twists it again this time more forcefully and the door finally opens. She steps in, the room looking barely used with the exception of some papers strewn across a table and a few empty beer bottles lying around. She walks over to the table and sits on the chair, thumbing through the papers left carelessly for anybody that walks in to see.

She waits for the boys to show up. After a few hours passed by she heard the sound of a car pulling up into the parking lot. The car doors slammed close and the door opened.

"What the fu-", says the eldest son drawing up his gun to her face

"-Put that down Winchester, I'm here to talk".

"Yeah, you here to munch my face off too!" He shouts, cocking the gun back and aiming it at her

"Dean maybe you should lower it, I don't think it's-", the youngest says dropping a green duffle bag on the table, the heavy guns hitting the table top was the only sound that filled the room as he rushes to his brother's side.

"-A Leviathan? No, I'm not one of those filthy beasts", she interrupts as she stands in the middle of the room her back towards the boys and her arms slightly raised. Dean lowers his gun a bit, but still having it pointed to her. He walks around her, while the younger one sits down noticing the papers on the table had been moved around.

She slowly turns around keeping an eye on the eldest but still glancing back occasionally at the youngest brother. Her eyebrows raised with curiosity as each one moves, observing every little thing they do.

"Who are you?" Dean says propping himself up against the wall.

She looks down, but she can still feel the two boys staring at her. "My name's Di-" she clears her throat, "my name's Maria".

"Maria huh? Well what are you doing in here, how'd you get in?" Dean asks, his voice rising with more suspicion than fury.

"Listen Winchesters, I'm here for one reason, and one reason only. I want the Leviathans gone." She says more to Dean than to Sam, as her shoulders dropped.

Maria hears Sam stand up from beside her, his chair sliding back against the floor, she turns her head towards him noticing he was looking at Dean. His eyebrows were raised while Dean sets his gun to his side, putting the safety back on. "What do you know about the Leviathans?" Sam looks at her, grabbing the papers from the table. He walks over to the bed in front of his brother and her and begins to flip through them.

"Not much, I've only heard stories… folk tales that my father used to tell my family. I knew of their existence but I- I only know of what you have in the papers and just that..", she looks around the hotel room and walks over to the guns lying on the table. She sits down to get more comfortable and holds a bullet casing up, "…this isn't going to kill them", and then sets it back down on the table when she realizes the eldest beginning to get tense.

Sam looked up, "wait how do you-", his voice trails off when his brother begins to talk.

"What's your story?" Dean said grabbing two beers from the small fridge in their hotel room. He throws one at Sam and then looked back at Maria. "Only reason you'd want them gone is because they did something, so what was it?"

"They took away the only person I had left to love", she says with uncomfortable pain in her voice. She looks at Dean while he rolls his eyes at her.

"Well look lady-", Dean says as he sat down on the bed next to his brother's.

"-My name is Maria, Dean".

"Yeah, Maria. Anyways, look I don't know what you're trying to get out of us but we can't help you. We…", he says pointing to Sam and then back to him, "…don't know anything about these things, what do you expect us to do?"

"Help!" She shouts and stands up abruptly looking at the eldest. "What, are you just so hard headed that you can't even help! What is it with you hunters, you don't know shit about some monster and all of a sudden you give up!" Her eyes begin to sting, she closes them for a few seconds and then opens them, turning her face away from Dean and towards Sam. To just find him looking at his sympathetically. She groans with annoyance and looks away from them both.

"Listen lady! Don't get things mixed up here. We never said we were giving up, I'm just saying you're not going to find help here. Look somewhere else"

"Look somewhere else? I thought you Winchesters were supposed to help the innocent. The ones that didn't want to be involved but had too. Isn't that what your little job is?" Maria's voice raises, her hands ball into a fist. They both stood up, she steps closer to Dean with every word. She looks at him in the eyes, she could see that he was trying to avoid eye contact. She breathes in, and her body relaxes.

"Yeah, but…", Dean let out a sigh of defeat. Something he was unfamiliar with, but recently had been a subject too more often. He breathes in once more, trying to calm his nerves down. She can hear him trying to collect his thoughts when she turns back around. No matter what he says to her she refuses to back down. "Obviously you're smart, you found us-"

"-Which was not that hard. The first motel in the phone book? You need to switch up your game boys, it's getting predictable, although your motel manager was difficult to get through", she says, her voice remaining at a constant level. She grabs the chair and sits back down again. "I came to find you Winchesters for help, but you're just as I expected… Useless".

"Hey!" Dean shouts at her, her head focuses on him immediately. His voice was becoming more irritable to Maria. "You came looking for us, you came barging in our room. You wanted our help!" Dean says getting closer to Maria, he grips the gun in his hand tighter, his knuckles becoming white.

"And I'm not getting it!" Maria protests back.

Sam sits on the bed, looking at the two. This stranger and his brother fighting. He rubs his hands on his knees and stands up and walks over to Dean, pushing the gun down. His eyes lowers at the woman. "Maria, we'll help you".

"Sam, how are we supposed to help her with something we have no idea about?" Dean says tight lipped. Maria still looking at the two, she closes her eyes again. She becomes relaxed and smiles, finally someone was willing to help her.

"Neither does she Dean, so what? She's right, we help people. That's what we do! Plus…", he said pulling his brother away by the arm, "…maybe she knows something, I mean she knows guns don't work, she could be keeping other information about these things back".

"Sam what are you stupid. She's a stranger!" Maria keeps her eyes close only bothering to listen to the two brothers.

"So what! We've worked with demons and all of a sudden this is an issue?" Sam says looking back at Maria noticing her eyes were closed. He begins to walk towards her, then Dean grabs his arm.

"Sam", Dean looks at her, "we don't even know if she's human".

"Dean shut up, we're helping her".

Sam walks over to Maria, she opens her eyes to see Dean's face was not happy about the fact that they were going to help her. He scratches his head and sits on the bed, he sets his gun aside and he falls back, his feet still on the floor. This was a battle he was too lazy to try and win.

"Maria, is there a number when can reach you?" Sam says looking at her from across the table.

"Uhm, no", Maria says looking at the two brothers. "I will call you", she replies quickly before leaving to the door. She turns back around "I expect something from you Winchesters", and then proceeded out of the room.

Maria closes the door and stood there for a while. She looks around, her eyes passing a tree but then turning back, she notices something, better yet someone. She stares unable to make sense of it. When she blinks the figure is gone, she looks around once more and then disappears out of the parking lot.

—_Days pass by—_

"Winchesters, where are you?" Maria says speaking into a pay phone.

"Working a case, listen we can't talk- Dammit Sammy! Take care of it! I can't- I'll call you-", Dean says, a loud pounding noise in the background could be overheard.

"-Dean where are you?" Maria interrupts, ignoring the fact that the boys were obviously busy.

"Can we-", a loud crash is heard once again.

"-Answer it"

"283 Blockingtrade Rode", Dean yells and the phone line clicked. Maria pulls the phone away from her ear and then back realizing the line was disconnected. She set the pay phone down and heads toward the place. When she gets there she stands outside. She can hear the Winchesters inside the small yellow house, but she doesn't go in.

"Jesus man, next time-", Dean says to Sam while he takes a sip from a beer can.

"-Dean look", Sam interrupts, gesturing towards Maria standing in front of their car.

"Sam, Dean, what have you found out?" she says walking towards the two boys.

"Nothing so far, I'm about to go check up on a lead", Dean says looking at Sam, still avoiding contact with Maria. Her eyebrows lowers, she couldn't understand why the boy was so afraid of looking at her.

Maria looks at the two, "then Sam and I will meet you back at the hotel".

"Yeah you do that", Dean replies, patting Sam on the back. Sam looks at him then gets into the car with Maria. He grunts as he gets his seat belt on, she can tell that he feels uncomfortable with the fact that his brother had left him alone with her without throwing some type of fit. He starts the car looking at Maria once or twice while he shifts in the driver's seat.

"Sam I need to ask you something?" Maria says sternly while Sam drives off.

"Uhm.. yeah sure", he puts the radio on and lowers the music. Dean seems to enjoy the music nice and loud, Maria lifted her eyebrows in the observation.

"Sam do you still see Lucifer?"

"Wait, what?" he lets out a forced sigh, "N-no. I never did". He shifts in his seat again. Maria raises an eyebrow and looks at him, his face tenses.

"It's okay Sam, you can tell me. I see things too" she looks forward, focusing on the road.

"You-I'm not seeing anything Maria"

"What does he say to you?"

"Nothing, he says nothing"

"Sometimes I see my br-… I see somebody. He says nothing either. He just seems to stand there. I think he's confused. When I see him, as soon as I turn my head or blink he's gone". She takes a deep breath and looks outside the passenger window, "he can't be there, it's not real, it's impossible. How is it for you?" She questions him again.

Sam looks at her, he hasn't been this close to her until now. He hasn't gotten a good look at her like this in general, but he notices something different. Her eyes were softer, more sincere. It reminds him of Castiel. The way he looked at Dean, the sorrow in his eyes, hers were just like that. "He's loud… annoying. He throws things around, creates things. It's like the cage".

Maria shuts her eyes, and looks back out the window. "Sam what do you do to stop it?" Her voice cracks a little, as if almost pleading for an answer.

"I don't- I don't know how"

"I'm sorry", she looks at him. She wasn't sure whether or not to lay a consoling hand on him or to just look away. Sam just looks forward and continues to drive.

Sam stops the car suddenly, pulling over to the side. Maria sits there, her head turning left and right. As Sam opens his door Maria grabs his arm. "Where are you going, stopping was not part of the plan. Get back in here Winchester!"

"No, something's wrong", he says getting out of the car and banging on the hood, motioning for Maria to get out of the car. She looks around and exits. She rushes to Sam's side, following his eyes.

"Where are you going?" The question was followed by a lowering of a hand from Sam, meaning to be quiet. She looks at him, her temper raising and then just as Sam does, come to a halt.

He looks at her, and then into a window of a small business. He tries to enter the small one story building through the front door, but soon realizes the furniture from inside the store had been thrown around, he pauses looking around the building. He looks at Maria gesturing towards a small ally on the side and they walk there. Her head hangs low as the turn into the ally. "Sam, what are we doing here?" She finally says noticing there was no way to enter the building through the side ally.

"Something is wrong, yesterday that store was spotless. Now it's a mess, someone was in there", he says backing out of the ally and walking back to the front door.

"Okay, so someone went in there, could've been a couple of kids", Maria says with doubt in her voice. She doesn't want the boys to focus on this petty job, they needed to worry about the Leviathans. "Sam we need to get back to the hotel, we have other things to worry about".

"No", he replies and walks over to the door. He grips the handle turning it slowly. Maria takes a deep breathe and looks at Sam, her eyes opening wide and tilts her head forward annoyed. He takes the hint and hurries up, opening the door and walking in. Maria follows in after, looking at the mess of broken furniture on the floor of the small business.

Their feet crunch against the glass from broken picture frames and vases. They look around, something was wrong here, and the feeling of uneasiness came over her. Sam looks around, hoping for an idea of what could've caused this, then something catches his eye. He bends down, Maria rushing over to him as he picks something up from the ground. He laughs to himself, as if what he had found was some type of joke. He stands up, Maria's focus changes from his facial expression to what was in his hand.

"Is that… sulfur?" She says picking at whatever Sam has in his hand with her finger and raising it to her nose.

"Yeah, we need to go", he says turning around with disbelief. Maria looks at him confused, but doesn't question him.

They walks out of the store and back into the car. Sam drives off, finally heading back to the hotel. When they arrive they wait for Dean.

The first few minutes were in silence, Sam sits on the bed while Maria stands there awkwardly. Sam laughs, Maria looks at him in curiosity. "Did I do something funny?" she says to him looking around then back to him.

"No, it's just-" he stops, lowering his head back into his papers. His voice lowers, "I had a friend, he use to do the same thing when it was quiet".

"Oh", she says clearing her throat. She stands there for another minute then walks over to the window and faces Sam. "Who was it? Another hunter?"

"No, uhm. Well… in a way yeah. His name was Castiel, he was a Angel". Sam's voice lowers again, and looks up at Maria "he's… dead".

"I'm sorry, uhm… I knew of him. I heard he was a great guy", she says more to her self than to Sam. She turns towards the window, seeing Sam in the reflection. "Stupid though, but with the best intentions", she laughs a bit.

"What was that?" Sam says standing up.

"Nothing, I'm just talking to myself", Maria doesn't change her focus, she continues to look out the window.

"No, you said something about Cas", Sam insists, inching closer to her.

"No I didn't". She replies not turning around, hoping to end the conversation.

"Yes, you did. You called him stupid!" His voice raises, this time he stands directly behind Maria.

She turns around, and Sam backs up a little. They look at each other in the eye, "must've been, an Angel dying? He had to have done something really dumb to have done that", she says, her eyes began to water "what an idiot". She turns back around and looks outside. Her eyes didn't fixate on anything in particular, she just needed something to take her attention away from Sam. "Angels don't just die whenever they get a little boo boo. They can heal, I've seen it. So for one to die", she stops talking and continues to just looks out the window.

Then something grabs her eye, across the street from her; the same guy she had been seeing was there again. She blinks but he was still there. She turns around and rushes towards the door, pushing Sam out of the way. She stands outside the room, the guy was still there, she smiles but she wasn't sure if he was real. Sam calls out to her, and comes up behind her. He touches her shoulder and she turns around.

"You okay?" He says, his hand remaining on her shoulder.

"Yeah, my-" she turns back around to see the guy from earlier had disappeared. "bu- but… he was. No! He was just there", she says looking around the area where she had just saw him.

"Who was?" Sam says following her back inside. She sits at the table, her hands cradled her head.

"I thought I saw the guy".

"The one you said was just a hallucination? He isn't real, you said so."

"This time… this time though, he was there! He was there until you distracted me", she says to him, her voice lowering.

"I-I'm sorry", Sam replies sitting down across from her.


End file.
